Met with other adventurers early Saturday for a bike ride that would take us from a mountain top at 15.3K (cold) to the jungle at 3K feet (hot). Most of the 40mile ride was downhill. the catch to the ride was that half of it would be on the ¨Death Road or the most dangerous road in the world. The first half of the ride was on paved road and we skirted by huge mountains. The guide said he has only seen scenery this dramatic in one other place: Yosemite. The Death Road was unpaved and fortunately limited traffic because of a new road recently replaced it. The road was of course gravel and there were no guard rails. At times it was only 8ft wide and had drops of over 1,000 feet. Sounds scary but I never felt at risk. we had a good guide and good equipment. The road got its name because for years it was the only link between La Paz and the jungle. Tractor trailor trucks and buses used this road. How they negotiated it and to do it with uncoming traffic is a mystery to me. Typically 200 to 300 people died a year on this road. Now with little traffic, the bike ride is more for the scenery and for bragging rights. An interesting side note: there was only one home on the entire road and it belonged to Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyon. He was protected for years by the US and by Bolivia.
At the end of the ride we had a chance to take 3 zip lines across three deep valleys. After the bike ride I was ready for anything. If I was rested and more mentally alert I would have been scared silly. The equipement looked good and I went for it. One more item that is now off my list of things to do!
We had a parting dinner had a wildlife sanctuary. They have more monkeys than anthing. The monkeys are in a huge natural enclosure. I went in and soon had a rather large spider monkey jump up on my shoulders and began scratching at my head. Never would I have expected an experience like that! They have no claws so the guy actually felt soft to me and his hands smooth.
That was a lot for one day. But wait. We drove back ti La Paz on the death road near dusk. Fortunately, I was sitting in the back of the van so I couldnt see the driving over the narrow unprotected roads. About a third of the way into the ride, the suspension gave out. We had to stop and either fix it (how?) or get a lift from someone (but there was no cell signal and the road was deserted) or we ride our bikes back to a destitute village (but it was getting dark). That was the scariest part of the entire day. On the dealth road, no vehicle and it is getting dark. After much inspecting and jacking up the vehicle a number of times, the driver took three bike inner tubes and wrapped them around the fractured suspension. Yeah right! this was going to work. Amazingly it did and we all lived to see another day!
That was one long day of adventure. it would be hard to top this during my journey but there are more adventures ahead, so maybe! It was a very satisfying and full day. Made friends with a family from Lima and we are planning to get together a day before I depart Lima for home.
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